


Emergency Aid

by ultharkitty



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-11
Updated: 2013-10-11
Packaged: 2017-12-29 02:21:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/999728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ultharkitty/pseuds/ultharkitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tailgate fanboys Cyclonus a little too hard. </p><p>Written to this prompt from zuzeca: Cyclonus and Tailgate meet before the war, anything from a passing encounter on the street to a one-night stand.</p><p>Contains: gen, crack, choking incident, OC.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Emergency Aid

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zuzeca](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zuzeca/gifts).



"Jumpstart," Tailgate hissed, jabbing his friend in the arm. "Jumpstart, _look!_ "

Jumpstart nudged him back, taking a slurp of his energon cocktail. "Look at what?" he said. "What am I meant to be looking at?"

"Not so loud!" Tailgate ducked his head. "Oh pistons, he looked this way. Arg, act like we're just talking!"

"We _are_ just talking," Jumpstart said. He scanned the plaza, trying to see who 'he' was and what had got his fellow minibot's cables in a twist. All he saw were the crowds: tourists and workers and the occasional Towers socialite come to slum it with the mildly well off. 

Head tugged down so low his visor was barely higher than his chest, Tailgate leaned over. "Him," he whispered. " _There, by the fountain._ It's Cyclonus, from the mission. The _Ark_ mission with Nova Prime!" 

" _Right_..." Jumpstart set his empty glass on the table, and began to look around for the waiter. "That's nice," he said. "The Ark's that ship you're cleaning out, isn't it?"

"Nice?" Tailgate huffed, but at least he pulled his head out of his chest again. He opened his mask and fed the end of an energon stick into the plain, basic intake that served him as a mouth. "It's _amazing_ ," he sighed. "It's like the most amazing awesome thing ever, they're going to make history."

"Yeah," Jumpstart said. "Nice." He waved at a serving-drone, but failed to catch its eye. When he turned back, Tailgate was sitting with his elbows on the table, head in his hands, and the gradually shortening energon stick poking out of his intake. Dignity must have been an optional extra for certain frame types. 

"He's so noble," Tailgate sighed. "I bet they'll get up to all kinds of adventures."

Jumpstart snickered. "That's the last time we go out for cocktails before work."

Cyclonus reached the other end of the plaza, but before the crowd could swallow him, he abruptly changed direction, heading straight for them.

Tailgate threw his hands over his mouth. The energon stick vanished and his intake constricted so fast the noise made Jumpstart wince. As Tailgate choked, Jumpstart tried and failed to remember the three steps to clearing an intake blockage, and succeeded only in flapping his hands uselessly either side of Tailgate's throat.

Cyclonus was almost on them. Tailgate banged his head on the table, and Jumpstart had no idea how that was meant to help. 

Cyclonus walked briskly past. 

Jumpstart logged on to the data net and ran a seach for how to treat choking in minibots while Tailgate flailed. 

Cyclonus glanced their way. Then he stopped. "Does your friend require assistance?" he asked. 

Tailgate's optics blazed, but the mortified sounds coming from his vocal processors could hardly be considered words. 

Jumpstart slowly nodded. 

"Forgive my presumption," Cyclonus said. He placed a hand firmly on Tailgate's shoulder, thrust two fingers between the cables of his throat, and twisted. Then he slapped Tailgate firmly on the back, using exactly the method slowly loading on Jumpstart's datapad. The sad remains of the energon stick shot out, and Jumpstart did not want to see where they landed, but they definitely hit sentient metal. 

Tailgate gasped, grasping at his throat. His visor did that blurry thing it did every time he got over emotional, and Jumpstart felt it was his duty as Best Friend to prevent him from saying anything at all until his saviour and latest crush was out of earshot. 

"Thankyou," Jumpstart said, grabbing Tailgate firmly by the arm. "Seriously, thankyou so much."

Cyclonus nodded. "The obstruction is gone? Good. If you will excuse me." 

It was a mercy how fast Cyclonus moved. By the time Tailgate regained the power of speech, he was long gone. 

"Did you see that? _Did you see that?!_ " Tailgate jittered, unable to keep still. 

"OK," Jumpstart said, "so he's pretty cool. Don't you need to be somewhere?"

"Where? What? Oh cogs, The Ark!" Tailgate bounded from his chair, and was halfway across the plaza before he turned to give a cheery wave. 'Same time tomorrow?' he sent by text as he transformed. 

'I'll need to check my shift pattern,' Jumpstart replied. 'Call me!'


End file.
